Christian Bale visits hospitalized victims of Colorado shooting

In the wake of Friday’s shooting at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo., Warner Bros. canceled the cast’s appearances at premieres abroad, but Christian Bale has quickly found himself with a ticket to a new destination: On Tuesday afternoon the actor was in Aurora visiting victims of the shooting.

The Denver Postreported that the actor spent about two-and-a-half hours at the Medical Center of Aurora.

“The patients were really happy to meet Bale,” Bill Voloch, interim president of Medical Center of Aurora, told the DenverPost. “They are obviously big fans of his movies. They wanted to see Batman and were really pleased to see Bale.”

Among the people Bale visited was Carey Rottman, who posted a photo of himself with Bale on Facebook.

The visit follows a statement Bale released on Saturday: “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”

A representative for Warner Bros., which produced The Dark Knight Rises, clarified to the Denver paper that Bale was at the hospital ”as himself, not representing Warner Bros.” But the studio is also reaching out those impacted by the tragedy in Aurora – it has made a donation to charities supporting the shooting victims.